Tongue tied
by lady of the wilds
Summary: Charmy and Espio have a weird conversation. one-shot fluff.  dedicated to Animanizanny


Hi guys. I got another chaotic fluff story and it, once again revolves around Charmy and Espio. But this time I've dedicated this story to Animanizanny who is a wonderfully kind person and has inspired me to dish out more fluff for these guys. J

Animanizanny if you're reading this I hope you like it and thanks for the kind words. You're a star and deserve ice cream!

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><p><strong><span>Tongue tied<span>**

Charmy focused hard on the paper in front of him. His eyes narrowed and his tongue stuck out at the corner of his mouth. It was rare for the young bee's concentration to be this focused but he had to be very careful. One little mistake and his whole work would be ruined and his whole morning wasted.

Just one more splash of red and it will be finished.

"Yay! I finally finished!" Charmy shouted excitedly and threw his hands in the air. "Look Bandit I've finally designed the perfect car."

Charmy scooped up his picture and waved it in front of the sleeping ferret's face. Bandit, who up till now had been sleeping quietly on Charmy's bed, cracked open an eyelid and gazed lazily at the painting.

"See this is where the Rockets are and this thing here is where the ice cream comes out and this little button here activates the flamethrower. Pretty cool huh?"

Despite Charmy's enthusiasm the little ferret yawned, closed his eyes and went back to sleep.

Charmy watched the ferret yawn and marvelled at how his little pink tongue curl up right before he closed his mouth.

"Hey I didn't know ferrets could roll their tongues."

Charmy stuck his tongue out at the small animal and rolled his tongue. Quickly he pulled his tongue back into his mouth and smiled. "Hey I can do it to! Look bandit I can roll my tongue as well."

The ferret, disturbed for the second time, opened his eyes again and watched as Charmy rolled his tongue again. Charmy giggled at his new found trick and ran around the room laughing. He ran all around the room and jumped on the bed. Bandit squealed angrily and darted out of the bee's way moments before he could be jumped on.

"Sorry bandit." Charmy apologized to the ferret that had taken refuge under his bed. Charmy kneeled on his bed and peeked under. Two hazel eyes peeked back at him.

"I'm gonna go and show Vector my new trick, you stay here okay."

The dark eyed ferret looked at the bee almost as if he was trying to figure out what made the kid tick but his interest soon evaporated and he went back to doing what ferrets do best; sleeping.

Charmy didn't mind and let the ferret have the run of his room. He made doubly sure the door was closed behind him when he left. If it was open even just a crack Bandit would squeeze out and run amuck through out the house. To this day Charmy swears he had no idea how the ferret ended up in Vector's sock drawer. Really he didn't.

Flying down the stairs Charmy flew straight to the office Vector normally spent most of the day in. The door was closed and in true Charmy style he barged right on in without knocking, something that really got on Vector's nerves.

"Hey Vector guess what- … oh sorry I didn't know we had a customer."

Seated on the chair opposite the now angry looking crocodile sat a man in his late fifties. His greying hair and bright clothes looked familiar to him but Charmy couldn't place the face.

"Charmy you remember Mr. Drake." Vector said trying to resist the urge to shout. "He's here to finish up the report about his case."

Oh now he remembered where he'd seen the man! He had come to them three weeks ago asking for their help. His young niece hadn't been in contacted with her family for a while and according to Mr. Drake this wasn't like her, she would call and email her mother every weekend. After three weeks with no contact from her the family started getting worried and called her home. When they got no answer and had tried a number of times they phoned the police but because she was nineteen and living with her boyfriend they couldn't do anything until someone officially reported her as missing. Not wanting to wait and having nowhere else to turn to he contacted the chaotic.

It turned out that the girl had gotten in some real trouble with her boyfriend, something that she shouldn't have been involved in. After threatening to turn him in to the police if he didn't stop his shady dealing he had kept her under lock and key refusing to let her leave the house or talk to anyone.

The whole case had been difficult and some of it a bit illegal but eventually they collected proof of her imprisonment and the lad's illegal dealings. Espio did most of the dirty work, breaking into the apartment and collecting evidence, not to mention freeing the girl. Once she was safely away from the apartment Vector and Charmy finished the rest. The man was arrested and isn't expected to be released for a few years.

All in all it was one of their more exciting cases and despite a few warnings off the police for breaking and entering they did alright. The girl was back home safe and they were getting a good pay for their work. And their reputation was bound to go up too. It was win win all around and they couldn't be happier by the results.

Charmy ventured furthering the room and smiled politely at the gentlemen.

The man leaned over the back of the chair and smiled at him. "Hello again youngster, just signing this here report and I'll be out of you're hair."

Charmy smiled back and asked out of politeness. "Nice to see you again Mr. Drake, how's your niece?"

"Still a bit shaken up but she'll be fine thanks to you three. She sends her thanks as well."

"We're glad you got her back safe and sound Mr. Drake. Vector said and passed the man a form. "If you could just put you're signature on the dotted line we can file this and officially closed the case."

"Of course." The man scribble a neat signature and handed the form back. "You've done my family a great service. I'll be sure to pass your name along to my friends."

Vector took the form and gave it the once over and stuffed in safely in his desk. "Okay that this case closed. Thank you Mr. Drake I hope you and your family can go back to your normal lives now." he stood up and shook hands with him.

"Thank you very much Mr. Vector. I'll see myself out."

On his way to the door his stopped briefly and offered his hand to Charmy who took it courteously. "Thank you for all your help lad. You'll be a top notch detective when you're older."

"Thank you Mr. Drake. I hope you and your family stay safe and sound and out of the bad guys way, but if the bad guys ever bother you again you can tell me and I'll beat up for ya."

The man chuckled. "You've got it lad but hopefully this will be the last you see of me and if it is I wish you all well and goodbye."

With and wave and a smile the man disappeared through the door and was gone.

Charmy watched the door for a few moments, thinking about the kind man and his family. "He's a nice man isn't he Vector?"

"Yeah a real decent fella." the Croc said from behind his oak desk. "Now then, what did you want to tell me that was so important that you had to come barging in without knocking and interrupting my meeting?"

"How was I supposed to know you were in a meeting?"

"If you had knocked you would have known."

"yeah well If I knock then I miss all the interesting things like when you were writing that love letter to Miss. Vanilla."

"Hey we had a deal! I give you two bags of gummy worms and you never ever mention that again."

"Oh yeah, I forgot. Maybe another bag of gummy worms will remind me not to say anything."

"Charmy! What do you want?" the croc shouted quickly losing his patience and fearing he would be suckered into handing over more candy.

"I wanted to show you my new trick." he flew in front of Vector and stuck his tongue out and made it curl up at the sides. Vector watched looking more bewildered then impressed.

Charmy pulled his tongue back into his mouth and grinned triumphantly. "Isn't that cool Vector? I bet you can't do that can ya?"

"Well Charmy you'd be right about that but it isn't really a trick. A lot of people can do that."

He was a bit disappointed to hear that. "Really? Aw I thought it was a really cool trick."

"It is Charmy, I can't do it."

"Why not?"

"It's a croc thing. Our snouts are too long so we can't stick our tongue out. The closest I can get is sticking my tongue out at the side." he demonstrated his lack of tongue manoeuvrability by opening his mouth a bit revelling that his tongue was too short to reach the end of his massively long jaw. Charmy thought it was fascinating that crocodiles and possible alligators were so flawed when it come to tongues. How could they show their dislike for something if they could stick out their tongues?

"That's weird."

"You think that's weird you should show your trick to Espio and see if he can do it."

"Yeah that's a great idea Vector!" without another word he leaped into the air and buzzed out the door in search of the chameleon. Vector grinned proudly to himself at how easily he had passed the hyper young bee over to the lizard. Normally it took a bribe of sugar and cake to get a few Charmy free moments. He was doing pretty well this morning.

Out in the hallway Charmy hovered above the floor peeking his head in every door he passed along the way looking for Espio. He was properly in the living room meditating or doing something equally as boring but there was no harm in checking the others rooms first. As he popped his head into the kitchen a small bag of lemon sweets caught his eye. What careless person would leave a bag of sweets abandoned and alone in the kitchen?

Checking the hallway on either side he quickly darted into the room, snatched the bag and darted out. With a grin of satisfaction he stuffed the bag inside his jacket and carried on to the living room. He would make sure the sweets got a good home.

Flying towards the living room Charmy heard the sounds of the television talking away in a langue he could only assume was Japanese or alien. If it was Japanese then Espio was watching one of his old samurai warrior films where everyone fly's around and catches daggers with their teeth. He liked them but Espio didn't like him seeing them because of all the violence and the fact that he had to ask what everyone was say every couple of seconds.

Flying into the room he took a seat next to the chameleon who gave him a nod in greeting. On screen a man in black pyjamas' was talking to a pretty girl with flowers in her hair. Charmy watched the on screen couple for a few moments before turning to Espio. "What did he just say?"

"And that's the end of this film." the lizard said and flicked off the television. He turned to the youngster with a look of defeat on his face. He knew the score; if Charmy wanted attention it was best just to give it to him rather then drawing it out. It was the only way of getting peace and keeping your sanity to a normal level.

"What's up Charmy?"

Charmy was happy he didn't have to spend twenty minutes breaking Espio down. He was very patience and lasted longer then Vector ever could when it came to attention grabbing.

"Can Chameleons roll their tongues?"

That sort if question may confused your average person but this was actually one of the bee's less weird questions.

"How do you mean?"

"Like this."

He stuck his tongue out and rolled it up at the sides the same as before then pulled it back in and waited. Espio watched with a smile on his face.

"So you can roll your tongue eh? Well all chameleons can roll their tongues but we do it in a slightly different way."

Charmy watched with growing amazement as Espio stuck his incredibly long tongue out and started to curl it. Over and over it went, seemingly never ending until it looked just like his tail. Charmy couldn't even guess how long it must be and felt a surge of jealously build up in his chest.

"Wow! That is the coolest thing ever! I wish I could do that." He stuck his tongue out again and tried to curl it like Espio's but it just wasn't long enough. He gave up after a few minutes and sulked.

"Aw I can't do it. I wish I was a chameleon, they're so much cooler then bees."

Espio retracted his lengthy appendage and patted the bee on the shoulder. "Bees are cool Charmy; you guys can sting people and fly. I wish I could fly."

"Yeah I know bees are cool but you guys can go invisible and stick to walls."

"And you have a built in compass, not to mention good dance skills."

Charmy couldn't argue with him there, all bees had an in-born ability to rock it on the dance floor. He was especially pound of his moon walking ability which neither of the retiles could do.

"Hmm, I suppose there's good point and bad points about being a bee or chameleon huh?"

"Yes but it shouldn't matter. No species is completely perfect and each has their flaws, like how reptiles can't cope with freezing temperatures."

"Or how I can't fly right in the rain?"

"Exactly."

Espio leaned back on the sofa and yawned loudly. Charmy watched his tongue curl round again just like a dogs when they yawned.

"I still wish I had a long tongue."

Espio looked at the boy and saw the seriousness in his eyes. He couldn't help but smile. "Why do you want a long tongue Charmy?" he knew the answer but he wanted to hear him say it out loud.

"Duh! To annoy people of course."

Espio chuckled and pressed himself further in his seat. "You're a real card Charmy."

The bee's head swirled to the right. "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

"It's a good thing Charmy."

"Oh, Good."

The room fell silent as neither could think of anything else to say. Of course with Charmy around the silence could only last so long.

"So can I watch a film with you? I promise I won't ask any questions, scout honour."

How could he refuse the kid once he declared scouts honour?

"Okay, you pick. Let's see how long scout honour will last."

"A bag of lemon sweets says I don't say a word the whole way though."

Now he really couldn't refuse, a bag of lemon sweets sounded nice. "You're on."

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><p>Hope you liked it and if you've got time please leave a comment J. peace out .<p> 


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